Various Artists

Bangs & Works Vol. 2

Planet Mu;
2011

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When the first Bangs & Works compilation was released by Planet Mu last year, it emerged in a climate of controversy and accusations surrounding its authenticity and propriety, with some seeing it as a document of a Chicago scene as viewed by certain UK electronic tastemakers. This time, however, the circumstances feel simpler: Footwork influences and references are the norm for a whole international world of "bass music," and the questions of exploitation and gimmickry seem to have been put to rest, or at least pushed aside. Good timing, too-- the second Bangs & Works is a marked improvement over its predecessor; as if unconcerned with being comprehensively representative to outsiders, its curator, Mike Paradinas, can delve into the very depths of the sound's weirdness.

Part of the reason that footwork proved so fascinating to so many different sectors of dance music simultaneously was its unforgiving extremity: Sonically rough and rhythmically brutal, it laced together latent impulses from jungle, breakcore, and house into something that sounded like mutant hip-hop-- booty house gone berserk. Compatible with so many universes yet still alien enough to be ineffably hip, it was the outsider of music of 2010 that stubbornly fought its way into the conversation. Hip-hop and R&B samples were the theme of the first Bangs & Works, emphasizing the Chicago scene's connection to and identification with hip-hop culture, but the focus on the second has changed. Instead of the staccato vocal clipping and syllabic repetition, you're more likely to hear swerving synths or pounding drums on Bangs & Works 2, a document of the scene that emphasizes its house roots.

The first track sets the mood appropriately: RP Boo's "Heavy Heat" is a stormer of sub-bass and grim horn stabs, nary a vocal to be found outside of Boo's own producer tag drops (a common sound on Bangs & Works 2). There are still tracks with vocals-- rapping on DJ Earl's "Hit Da Bootz", chipmunk crooning on DJ Solo's "What Have You Done", hype-man hypnosis on DJ Roc's "Get Buck Juice"-- but they're the exceptions. Instead we get the lush synth-funk of DJ Rashad & Gant-Man's "Heaven Sent" or the pendulous insanity of DJ T-Why's ear-piercing "Finished". That same producer's "Juice" and tracks from DJ Metro like "Smak My Bitch Up" show how dissociative and trippy footwork can be without sacrificing its crucial danceability-- not that it was ever easy to dance to in the first place.

It's two new-- to Mu, anyway-- producers who run with that weirdness, standing out on the compilation's most progressive moments. Young Smoke provides vivid psychodrama with his string of lush tracks at the compilation's end, like the sparse funk of "Space Muzik Pt. 3", not too far from a Pearson Sound production. But it's Jlin who steals the show early on with "Erotic Heat", all tremulous low-frequency throbs, cracking snares, and drum patterns that snake and writhe with unusual precision. So many footwork producers are content to let their tom-toms skate across a slippery surface of undulating sub-bass, but Jlin's are unusually tactile and exact, little miniature cascades unfolding separately at will. Sharing the same Mortal Kombat sample as DJ MC's "Y Fall" but utilizing it so much more effectively, Jlin proves what makes her particularly special with the swampy psychedelia of "Asylum", harboring some of the hardest and heaviest-hitting percussion of any footwork track released on Planet Mu to date. Jlin's tracks are captivating because she relocates footwork's focus, rendering those bass rumbles even more isolated as she scatters the percussion to far-flung corners of the stereo spectrum. Her tracks show not only footwork's room for experimentation but the raw power that shines through even its weirdest moments.

Just like its older brother, Bangs & Works 2 is an exhausting listen, 80 minutes of intense syncopation spread over 26 dense nuggets. But whether it's the generally higher production values this time around or simply a more agreeable palette, the whole thing feels a little easier to swallow. It's hard not to jump from track to track getting excited with each producer that steps up to the plate, almost enough to override the sometimes slipshod feeling of compilations like these-- and with the newfound thematic coherence, hodgepodge isn't an issue. Paradinas' library of footwork tracks numbers well over 1,500, and he's done an admirable curatorial job of finding some common threads in a sea of cobbled-together mania. No longer dealing with the pressure to bring a new sound to the masses, he's instead coaxed out one of its most curious aspects for a disc of strange musical delicacies likely to appeal as much to footwork fanatics as those looking for new avenues for the avant-garde.